If you need more storage space on your iPhone for media as well as extra battery life, Mophie's Space Pack is the case to buy.

Mophie's Space Pack for iPhone 5/5s is basically the Juice Pack Plus with a nifty trick: There's flash memory inside. Until now, there has been no other way to expand your iPhone's built-in storage, so if you've ever felt the need for extra space for pictures, movies, music, or documents, keep reading. At $149.95 for the base 16GB model, with over eight hours of extra battery life, it's just $30 more than the regular Juice Pack Plus. Not everyone will want the extra bulk and cost in order to get both of these features, of course. But if this describes you, this is the case to get; it's our new Editors' Choice for iPhone battery cases.

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DesignAt 5.66 by 2.57 by 0.63, and weighing in at 2.8 ounces, Mophie's Space Pack is marginally smaller, yet heavier, than the Juice Pack Plus. Yet, it is generally larger than battery cases with smaller batteries with capacities in the same 1,700mAh range, like the Mophie Juice Pack Air. The rubberized plastic that covers the case is pleasing to look at and touch, and you can get one in all black, all white, all gold or red with a black border. The Space Pack's border is plastic compared with the Juice Pack Plus's rubber border, so it doesn't have quite as much grip.

Like most battery cases, the Space Pack comes in two sections. At the back of the bottom section, you'll find a metallic-silver button that, when pressed, indicates how much charge is left in the case via the four adjacent LEDs. The button is also used to connect the case's extra storage to the phone and the Space app, which I'll get to in a moment. A Power switch lets you activate the case's charging feature.

Features and PerformanceIf you've bought a 16GB iPhone and wish you had sprung for a higher-capacity version, Mophie's Space Pack is your salvation. With this case, you get the choice between 16GB ($149.99) and 32GB ($179.99) of built-in extra storage capacity; the company said a 64GB model will be available in late July for $249.99. All Space Packs work like any USB flash drive: You transfer documents and media from your computer onto the case's flash memory, which your computer recognizes as a separate storage device. You can't install apps on the Space Pack's storage à la Android, though.

Your stored data in the case streams over the built-in Lightning connector to your iPhone. But there's no way to browse through the files stored in the case with a file explorer in iOS 7, or otherwise access them from the iPhone's native apps. It's a separate storage space entirely; instead, you have to use Mophie's free Space app to access them. Fortunately, the app looks good and is well designed; it automatically categorizes your stored files into Photos, Videos, Music, Documents, and "Other Files" folders, and you can play or share files from the app itself. Alas, the Space Pack won't magically let you play media files that the iPhone isn't normally compatible with.

The Space Pack's other purpose is to give your iPhone extra battery life with its 1,700mAh battery. Mophie claims it'll give you an additional eight hours of talk-time. Indeed, this claim is validated by our battery test; the Space Pack gave a completely drained iPhone 5s on Verizon a whopping 8 hours, 18 minutes of extra talk time with LTE enabled, and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned off. That's one hour, 21 minutes more battery life than the 1,700mAh Juice Pack Air gave an iPhone 5. The Space Pack even added more talk-time than the 2,100mAh Juice Pack Plus (7 hours, 23 minutes) and Unu's 2,300mAh DX Protective Battery Case (7 hours, 53 minutes).

ConclusionMophie's Space Pack adds more battery life to your iPhone than any other battery case we've tested in the 1,700mAh range so far, and it even encroaches on cases with larger 2,100mAh battery. It's also good at adding storage to your phone, and solves the problem in a way no other vendor has tried. Even so, the price might be a bit steep for some, and not everyone will like dividing their media into two separate storage bins even despite the extra space. If you don't need the latter and just want extended battery life, the Editors' Choice Unu DX and the Phonesuit Elite Battery Case for iPhone 5/5s are about the same size, but much less expensive.

Before becoming PCMag’s Junior Consumer Electronics Analyst, Antonio graduated from Colgate University with a BA in History where he, upon writing his nine millionth essay, never thought he would ever write ever again, especially for a living. After working in PR and sales, Antonio realized his knowledge and passion for technology far exceeded normal levels, and, ironically, writing about it was one of his few outlets. He decided to take a risk and go on his own. He started his blog, TonyVsTech.com, and was freelancing...
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